Japanese Foreign Minister Motegi Toshimitsu paid a courtesy on President Rodrigo Roa Duterte in Malacañang on Thursday with the Philippine leader expressing his gratitude to Japan for its continuing support to the country’s development agenda.
During the call, President Duterte welcomed the Japanese official thanking him for finding time to visit the country for the first time.
The President highlighted numerous Japan-financed projects in the Philippines, which make Filipinos grateful to the Asian economic powerhouse for its continuing assistance.
Foreign Minister Motegi told President Duterte that it is a great honor for him to meet the Philippine leader for the first time. The Philippine-Japanese bilateral relation, he pointed out, has entered a golden age since President Duterte’s election.
Motegi also expressed his appreciation of President Duterte’s attendance to the Japanese emperor’s enthronement ceremony last October.
At the same time, Motegi expressed heartfelt condolences and sympathies to the survivors of the recent typhoon that hit central Philippines and the earthquake that devastated parts of Mindanao last month.
Motegi, who came from Japan’s Tochigi Prefecture, represented Tochigi Fifth District to the Japanese House of Representatives nine times.
Before his appointment as foreign minister in September 2019, Motegi served as the Minister of State for Economic and Fiscal Policy, Minister in charge of Social Security Reform and Minister in charge of TPP and Japan-U.S. Trade Negotiations in October 2018.
He also became Japan’s Minister for Human Resources Development and Minister in charge of Economic Revitalization.
Motegi graduated from the Faculty of Economics, University of Tokyo in March 1978 and completed his Master’s Degree at John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University in June 1983. PND
